I've got a cabinet project that's been underway for a while now, and that probably won't be finished anytime soon; working on it one day out of every thirty (which is about all the work on it I can squeeze in) tends to have those sorts of consequences. Luckily, the client is pretty lenient on the schedule, so...it'll get finished when it gets finished.

The other part of the productivity challenge has been a complete and total lack of creativity on my part. It happens every now and then, and is generally a sign that I need to step away from the shop for a while (which I did, recently).

But, I was feeling like makin' a little sawdust (and sparks) recently, so I figured I'd try out an idea I had for the cabinet doors. It's a little out of the ordinary to build an entire cabinet and start, essentially, with the doors, but if that's what I need to do to find enough inspiration to get back into the swing of things, so be it.

Anyhow, I built some cabinet doors. The work started with this piece of oak, which came from a ninety-year-old barn somewhere near Warrenton.

Barn Wood

See the saw blade marks from when it was originally milled? The flatter the lines, the bigger that saw blade; this thing was milled with something that had a forty inch diameter. That's a scary, scary saw blade. Like, cut-your-arm-right-off saw blade.

​Once I had the lumber picked out, I did some pretty high-level planning to get the design and math all figured out.

Detailed Plans

Obviously, it's a pretty foolproof plan.

From there I was able to miter saw, table saw, jointer and planer my way into producing these rail and stile blanks:

Cabinet Door Rails & Stiles

Then there was some more table sawing with a variety of blades (dado stack, circular saw, etc.), and I came up with this:

Bridle Joint

That's my version of a bridle joint. It's not *technically* a bridle joint, but it's like 98% a bridle joint. It's a long, complicated reason why, but for all intents and purposes, it's a bridle joint. The piece (tenon) on the right fits into the slot (mortise) on the left. Glue and clamps complete that part of the job. That metal you see in the background, that's what's going to be the cabinet door panel; it was the roof of the barn that the lumber was salvaged from.

Cabinet Door Glue-Up

That glue-up took 15 minutes. The one before it took 18. In total, that's 33 minutes of glue-up, and not one ounce of fun was had.